This is the email you will receive from me when I receive your contribution.

Thank you very much for your donation. It is much appreciated and it is only the kindness of people like yourself that enables me to keep the service going

Please submit your requests directly by email, you cannot send requests from the web site. Please restrict your requests to 3 names at a time, this ensures that everyone's requests are dealt with fairly. Once you get the results of your search you are welcome to submit another 3 names, etc.... You will receive an auto-response if you used MEMBER as the SUBJECT of your message. All searches are completed within the times shown below.

Mon to Sun 10am to 10pm 
Requests received after 10:00pm will be answered the following evening

Send your requests by email at any time, USING THE SAME EMAIL ADDRESS THAT YOU USED TO MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION.

Thank you for your contribution.

Put your password (this is shown in the email you will receive) on the first line of the message.
(if this is missing or does not match the email address used to make the contribution, the request will be ignored), if you need to change your email address please let me know.

Put "Member" in the Subject box (If this is missing, your email is NOT filtered into the priority list and may not be answered) - you will also receive an auto-response which is triggered by the the word "Member" as the subject.

Send the request to the Members email address - member@censusuk.co.uk

Please send your request's in this format, due to new searching procedures it is VERY important that requests are sent in this format ONLY.

Enter the following details - each on a separate line as below. If you don't know the birth or census county, put "Not Known" - you MUST enter the name and type of search at least.

1. Name to searched:
2. Year of birth: (If known - please use a year, i.e. 1878, NOT "23 years old")
3. County where Born:(If known)
4. County where Living:(If known)
5. Type of Search: *Only One Per Name from the following list
1861 Census
1871 Census
1881 Census
1891 Census
1901 Census
1851 4 County Census, Norfolk, Devon, Warwick, Wiltshire
Vital Records Birth or Marriage - ONE only please

Parts of the search are now automated, and the system will NOT understand a request as an ordinary email - i.e. "Please search for John Balstead age 23". Any emails received like this cannot be answered.  The only other format the system will recognize is a copy and paste of name(s) from a previously supplied list.

Each search is separate and to be fair to everyone I must insist that each email only contains THREE separate requests. Requesting a search for John Brown in 1871, 1881, and 1891 is 3 searches. Please do not send 3 names and request a search of all resources, that's 14 searches!. Once you receive the results of a search you may of course submit another 3 searches. This ensures that a backlog does not build up caused by one user making excessive requests to the detriment of others who are waiting for replies. Emails will be truncated to the 3rd search and any others will be deleted. I won't even see them. The only omission to this is a request from the 1881 census where I can send multiple records.

For the 1881 I can send up to 80 full records at one time, if they are in the same census county, multiple records are sent using RTF format, most word processors can read *RTF files. 

*If using Microsoft Word and some of the information appears to be missing, such as occupations, then do the following:*

Open Word, click on Options >Tools, >View and make sure that the "Hidden Text" box is ticked. Click OK.   You can do the same for printing - Options >Tools>PRINT - tick "Hidden Text" box.

Some searching tips:

For females who would have been married always use the married name, the maiden name does not appear on the census. Don't give up if the search is negative on a particular name, over 250 million names have been transcribed and it is not uncommon for spelling mistakes to have been made, try a search on a "sound-alike" name, i.e. Davies, Davis etc. Be careful in disregarding "plurals" - i.e. Bate and Bates. Also extend the age range in case of bad transcriptions.

Be careful when stating "London" parishes, i.e. Lambeth was designated to be in Surrey in 1881, not London!

Where possible state a county, i.e. you may know that "East Dereham" is in the county of Norfolk, I won't. By all means state a parish as it does help narrow the search, but also state the County where possible.

Please be aware that the year of birth can be out by one year due to the way that the census records have been transcribed i.e. the age of the person has been deducted from the year 1881 to arrive at a birth year. Thus if someone is recorded with an age of 2, their birth year will be shown as 1879. The 1881 census was taken on the evening of Sunday 3rd April 1881. People born between 1 January 1879 and 3 April 1879 will be aged 2 and will have their birth year shown correctly. People born between 4 April 1878 and 31 December 1878 will also be aged 2 but will have their birth year shown incorrectly by one year.

Finally, please remember these records are finding aids only - any records of interest should always be checked against official records wherever possible. All I do is extract records, not research - I leave that up to you!